Prison or nursing home?

Aging inmates, more-rigid parole rules fuel prison spending.

Aging inmates, more-rigid parole rules fuel prison spending.

September 28, 2006

COLDWATER, Mich. (AP) -- James Lindsey is an increasingly rare specimen of prison inmates in Michigan these days. Not because of his age -- he's 82 and leans on a cane -- but because 26 years after his second-degree murder conviction in 1980, he's scheduled to be released in a few weeks from the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Mich. "I gotta take advantage of this, 'cause my days are numbered," he told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Tuesday. The ranks of inmates like Lindsey who are age 60 or older in Michigan are growing -- from 649 in 1995 to 1,557 last year, according to the state Department of Corrections. And largely because of medical problems, elderly prisoners are more than three times more expensive to incarcerate than younger inmates, according to the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives. Along with the elimination of credits for good behavior, tougher drug laws and a parole board that is more hesitant to release inmates, it's fueling a spike in corrections spending -- about $1.8 billion, more than the state spends on higher education. Numbering about 15,000 in seven prisons in the early 1980s, the state's prisoner population has now risen to more than 50,000 in 42 prisons. Michigan has the highest rate of incarceration of the eight Great Lakes states, and many say the state could save millions if it brought its numbers more in line with those of its neighbors. "If the states around us with similar crime rates can operate with fewer people in prison, then why can't we?" asked Perry Johnson, Michigan's director of corrections under former Gov. William Milliken. Michigan's parole board, which was replaced with 10 new appointees in 1992 by former Gov. John Engler, keeps many parole-eligible inmates well beyond their earliest release date. The old board paroled about 68 percent of eligible inmates in 1992, while the current board paroles about 50 percent. Parole Board Chairman John Rubitschun said the recent murder convictions of Patrick Selepak, who killed three people after he was arrested on a parole violation and mistakenly released, will likely make the board even more wary. That could mean ever-rising costs and even more cases like Dudley Beatty, who turned 86 in March and has been in prison since he was 29. Convicted of murder in 1949, the World War II veteran once was a dangerous man, but now, "I have heart trouble, high blood pressure. I'm taking medicine for that all the time." Every few years, he asks the parole board to let him go, but he always gets the same answer. "They send me these 'Dear John' letters," he said. "They're not interested in my case."